“A cracking good read and a model of intelligent concision. To Rule the Waves is likely to become the standard one-volume history of the Royal Navy. From the epic sailing battles of the 16th century to the coda of the Falkland Islands War in 1982, from Hawkins and Drake to Nelson and Fisher, all the navy’s great episodes and characters are brought alive for the reader. . . . It also places the Royal Navy in its political context, showing how it created one of the first global systems, one that still influences the world today.”

“Deeply researched and engagingly written, this is a gripping account of great battles won and lost, of a triumphant war followed by a failed peace, and of clashing ideologies that shaped a century.”

“A learned study of the concept of decline since the Enlightenment, sure to generate widespread discussion and debate.”

“Examining mathematics, politics, theology, and architecture, the book demonstrates the continuing relevance of the ancient world.”

“Unfailingly evocative . . . close to an epic . . . More than a biography, it is a tale of a time in the past almost impossible to contemplate today as having taken place, with MacArthur himself as a figure perhaps too remote to understand, but all the more important to encounter.”